Why do web.config override MetaBase.xml?

Question

This might be a borderline Server Fault-question, but here goes.

I have a IIS 6 where AspMaxRequestEntityAllowed="204800" in MetBase.xml, suggesting the upload file limit is 200kb, while <httpRuntime maxRequestLength="20192"/> in web.config allows for a 20mb upload - and the latter is what the application allows.

Why do web.config override MetaBase.xml? To me, that seems like an error of hirarchy. And where would I find a "centralized parameter" to config max limits for the entire machine the server is on, in case I don't want some web.config mishapp to allow for gigabytes of upload?

Answer 1

I am not aware of MetaBase.xml but in your machine there are default configs available in folder

c:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Frameworks\VERSION\Config

am sorry the exact name could be little different, but you will figure out easily, here you will find couple of different web.*.config files, in each of them you can configure and there is a way you can disallow this property to be changed at lower level, but I am not aware of how to do that.

Reading MS Documentation of httpRuntime says that max limit is anyway set to 4MB by ASP.NET itself. I will try to find how to block lower level to modify this element in their web.config.

Answer 2

Web.config file is the last-point configuration manager and entries in it will override any entries made in the higher layers.

I.e. any settings made in machine.config file (which are applicable to all websites) will be overridden by web.config (applicable to only that website).

In fact you can have separate web.config file for each folder which will override your root level web.config.

This is the way hierarchy works you know.